A SECOND CHANCE AT FOREVER Chapter 56: CHAPTER FIFTY SIX

KYLE

It smelled like HER.

Vanilla. Jasmine. A whisper of something purely Ashley.

The scent wrapped around me like a second skin, burrowing into my senses, keeping me anchored in the warmth of the bed even as the sun’s rays stretched across my back. The light told me it was late morning, later than I usually allowed myself to sleep. By now, I should have been dressed, in the office, handling whatever crisis awaited me.

But I didn’t want to move.

Not yet.

Because if I opened my eyes and found an empty bed, I wasn’t sure I’d survive the disappointment.

Too many mornings had started this way. Waking up alone, trapped between dreams and reality, my mind still filled with the phantom touch of her fingers, the taste of her on my tongue. Too many showers had ended with my forehead pressed to the tile, the bitter ache of longing curling in my gut, knowing she wasn’t really there.

But last night had been real.

Snippets of it flashed through my mind—Ashley at the bar, the hesitant, electric pull between us, the way her lips had tasted like whiskey and temptation. Her laughter. Her moans. The way her body had fit against mine like she’d never left, like she’d been made for me and me alone.

Yet beneath those memories, a nagging feeling twisted in my chest, something I couldn’t quite place. Something unfinished.

A soft rustle cut through the silence, pulling me from my haze.

I frowned.

Another rustle. The sound of fabric sliding over skin.

I cracked my eyes open, my pulse stuttering when I saw the bed beside me was empty.

My gaze snapped to the corner of the room.

Ashley stood with her back to me, slipping her dress over her head, the morning sun casting a golden halo around her. Her hair, shot through with red, tumbled down her back in unruly waves. The silk of her dress cascaded over her hips, pooling at her thighs like liquid fire as she reached for the zipper, pulling it up with slow, careful movements.

She didn’t want to wake me.

Which meant…

A sharp hollowness settled in my stomach.

"Where are you going?"

The words sliced through the quiet, sharp and demanding.

Ashley stilled. Just for a second.

Then, without turning, she resumed smoothing her dress, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "Back to my house. I have a lot of work to do."

A cold, humorless chuckle rumbled from my chest.

"I see."

I forced myself to move, each action slow, precise—controlled, unlike the storm of frustration and dread brewing beneath my skin.

“Were you planning to say goodbye," I asked, my voice deceptively calm, "or were you just going to sneak out like I was some mistake you regretted?”

A beat of silence.

Then another.

Her fingers tightened slightly at her sides.

Still, no answer.

A bitter taste settled on my tongue. I could feel it happening—the way she was slipping away, erecting those invisible walls brick by brick, shutting me out before I even had a chance to hold on.

"What happened last night—"

“My voice was silk over steel when I spoke. “It didn’t sound like a mistake when you were screaming my name and begging me to come inside.”

Scarlet washed over Ashley’s face, but she didn’t back down.

“It was just sex.” Her voice wobbled on the word, betraying the conviction she was so desperately trying to hold onto. But her body—her stiff, unyielding stance as I closed the distance between us—told me she was digging in her heels, retreating behind walls I thought I had finally started to break down.

“It didn’t mean anything.”

Bullshit.

I had seen the way she looked at me. I had heard the way she whispered my name like a prayer, felt the way her body molded into mine like it had always belonged there.

Neither of us did “just sex.” Much less with each other.

Ashley swallowed hard, finally meeting my gaze. “Our sex life was never the problem, Kyle. But we can’t solve everything with it. I was drunk. We were caught up in the moment, the adrenaline, the past. It wasn’t about us—it was about the emotions flying around that had nothing to do with this.”

She gestured between us.

This.

Like whatever we had left was nothing more than a mess she needed to clean up before it stained too deep.

I forced a breath through my nose, grasping onto the ember of anger burning beneath my ribs. If I let the hurt take over, I’d be the one drowning.

“So what?” My voice dropped to something dark and sharp, something laced with the anger swelling beneath my ribs. “You’re just going to walk out and pretend last night didn’t happen? What’s your plan now, huh?”

I stepped even closer, forcing her chin to tilt up.

“Run away back to Germany for a new life because you’re too scared to face me yourself?”

The sharp inhale was my only warning.

“Fuck you.”

“You already did.”

I saw the slap coming before it landed.

But I didn’t stop her.

Her palm connected with my cheek in a loud, stinging crack. The force of it barely made my head turn, but the burn spread like wildfire—not just on my skin, but in my chest, where the embers of my heart smoldered beneath the wreckage of what we’d once had.

Ashley’s breath was jagged, her body trembling. Her eyes flickered with something raw, something unguarded, before realization hit her like a crashing wave.

"I—I didn’t mean—"

She faltered, looking stunned by her own reaction.

My anger drained so fast I barely had time to register its loss, and in its place, a cold shock of remorse settled deep in my bones.

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

I wasn't supposed to be here, fighting to hold on to someone I was never supposed to lose.

Broken relationships belonged in the past, buried with the old Kyle. The Kyle who had nothing to offer anyone. The Kyle who had been left behind when his father’s company collapsed, when the people who once shook his hand and patted his back suddenly couldn’t look him in the eye.

For a moment, the past yanked me back in its grip

“You don’t belong here anymore, Kyle. You know that, right?”

"I’d be careful who you try to do business with. Your father’s name is toxic now.”

"You should just move. Start fresh somewhere else. No one will take you seriously after this."

“A failing legacy”

I forced the memories back, locking them away like I always did.

I wasn’t that kid anymore. I didn’t live in that world anymore.

And I’d rather die than return.

My jaw tightened as I lifted a hand, brushing my fingers over my cheek where Ashley had struck me. The skin burned, but it was nothing compared to the ache twisting deep in my chest.

She turned toward the door.

No.

Not again.

I reached for her, my fingers wrapping around her wrist before she could take another step.

“Ashley.” My voice was rough, barely above a whisper. “Please, don’t. Don’t leave, Freckles.”

She stilled.

For half a second, I thought—hoped—she would stay. But then her spine stiffened, and she slowly turned back to me, her face blank.

“Kyle.” Her voice was calm, steady, but I could feel the storm brewing underneath. “Let me go.”

I shook my head. “I can’t.”

Her lips parted slightly, and something flickered in her eyes.

I exhaled sharply. “I can’t let you go because you’re meant to be here. With me.” My grip tightened just enough for her to feel the truth in my words. “You always have been.”

Her entire body was taut, her breath uneven, as if she were battling herself as much as she was battling me.

Finally, she spun to face me, her eyes blazing with emotion—pain, anger, something else I couldn’t quite name. “That’s not the problem,” she snapped.

“Then tell me what is,” I demanded. “Because I know you still feel this. Us. You can’t deny it.”

She laughed, but there was no humor in it. 

“Feeling was never the issue, Kyle. Loving you was never the issue. I loved you so much it nearly destroyed me.” Her voice wavered, but she held my gaze, refusing to back down. “The problem is that I was never enough for you.”

I recoiled as if she had slapped me again. “That’s not true.”

“No?” She took a step closer, eyes burning into mine. “Then why did you cheat on me? Why did you throw everything we had away for your damn business? Do you know what it felt like, Kyle? To know that I would never be your priority? That no matter how much I loved you, I would always come second to your ambition?”

Guilt crashed over me like a tidal wave, but I didn’t let go. I couldn’t.

“I thought I was doing what was best for us,” I rasped. “I thought if I worked harder, made more money, built something unstoppable, we’d have the life we always dreamed of.”

Ashley’s expression twisted, and I knew I had said the wrong thing. “The life you always dreamed of,” she corrected. “I never cared about any of that, Kyle. I just wanted you. But you—you let me go.”

Her voice cracked on the last words, and something inside me broke.

“I was wrong.” My grip on her wrist loosened, but I didn’t let go. “I was so fucking wrong, and I hate myself every day for it. I would trade everything—every deal, every dollar—just to take it back. To fix what I broke.”

Ashley’s throat bobbed as she swallowed, her expression torn. “You can’t,” she whispered. “You can’t just fix this like one of your business mergers. It doesn’t work that way.”

“Then tell me how,” I pleaded. “Tell me how to make it right.”

She hesitated, her lashes lowering for half a second.

Then she slowly pried my fingers off her wrist.

“You can’t.” Her voice was steady now, her decision made. “Some things aren’t meant to be fixed.”

And then, before I could stop her, she walked away.

Again.